But ere nightfall, harper lusty!

When the sun was like a ball
Dropping on the battle dusty,

What was yon discordant call?
Cambria's old metheglin demon

Breathed against our rushing tide;
Clove us midst the threshing seamen:-

Gashed, we saw our ranks divide!
IX

Britain then with valedictory
Shriek veiled off her face and knelt.

Full of liquor, full of victory,
Chief on chief old vengeance dealt.

Backward swung their hurly-burly;
None but dead men kept the fight.

They that drink their cup too early,
Darkness they shall see ere night.

X
Loud we heard the yellow rover

Laugh to sleep, while we raged thick,
Thick as ants the ant-hill over,

Asking who has thrust the stick.
Lo, as frogs that Winter cumbers

Meet the Spring with stiffen'd yawn,
We from our hard night of slumbers

Marched into the bloody dawn.
XI

Day on day we fought, though shattered:
Pushed and met repulses sharp,

Till our Raven's plumes were scattered:
All, save old Aneurin's harp.

Hear it wailing like a mother
O'er the strings of children slain!

He in one tongue, in another,
Alien, I; one blood, yet twain.

XII
Old Aneurin! droop no longer.

That squat ocean-scum, we own,
Had fine stoutness, made us stronger,

Brought us much-required backbone:
Claimed of Power their dues, and granted

Dues to Power in turn, when rose
Mightier rovers; they that planted

Sovereign here the Norman nose.
XIII

Glorious men, with heads of eagles,
Chopping arms, and cupboard lips;

Warriors, hunters, keen as beagles,
Mounted aye on horse or ships.

Active, being hungry creatures;
Silent, having nought to say:

High they raised the lord of features,
Saxon-worshipped to this day.

XIV
Hear its deeds, the great recital!

Stout as bergs of Arctic ice
Once it led, and lived; a title

Now it is, and names its price.
This our Saxon brothers cherish:

This, when by the worth of wits
Lands are reared aloft, or perish,

Sole illumes their lucre-pits.
XV

Know we not our wrongs, unwritten
Though they be, Aneurin? Sword,

Song, and subtle mind, the Briton
Brings to market, all ignored.

'Gainst the Saxon's bone impinging,
Still is our Gododin played;

Shamed we see him humbly cringing
In a shadowy nose's shade.

XVI
Bitter is the weight that crushes

Low, my Bard, thy race of fire.
Here no fair young future blushes

Bridal to a man's desire.
Neither chief, nor aim, nor splendour

Dressing distance, we perceive.
Neither honour, nor the tender

Bloom of promise, morn or eve.
XVII

Joined we are; a tide of races
Rolled to meet a common fate;

England clasps in her embraces
Many: what is England's state?

England her distended middle
Thumps with pride as Mammon's wife;

Says that thus she reads thy riddle,
Heaven! 'tis heaven to plump her life.

XVIII
O my Bard! a yellow liquor,

Like to that we drank of old -
Gold is her metheglin beaker,

She destruction drinks in gold.
Warn her, Bard, that Power is pressing

Hotly for his dues this hour;
Tell her that no drunken blessing

Stops the onward march of Power.
XIX

Has she ears to take forewarnings
She will cleanse her of her stains,

Feed and speed for braver mornings
Valorously the growth of brains.

Power, the hard man knit for action,
Reads each nation on the brow.

Cripple, fool, and petrifaction
Fall to him--are falling now!

MEN AND MAN
I

Men the Angels eyed;
And here they were wild waves,

And there as marsh descried;
Men the Angels eyed,

And liked the picture best
Where they were greenly dressed

In brotherhood of graves.
II

Man the Angels marked:
He led a host through murk,

On fearful seas embarked;
Man the Angels marked;

To think without a nay,
That he was good as they,

And help him at his work.
III

Man and Angels, ye
A sluggish fen shall drain,

Shall quell a warring sea.
Man and Angels, ye,

Whom stain of strife befouls,
A light to kindle souls

Bear radiant in the stain.
THE LAST CONTENTION

I
Young captain of a crazy bark!

O tameless heart in battered frame!
Thy sailing orders have a mark,

And hers is not the name.
II

For action all thine iron clanks
In cravings for a splendid prize;

Again to race or bump thy planks
With any flag that flies.

III
Consult them; they are eloquent

For senses not inebriate.
They trust thee on the star intent,

That leads to land their freight.
IV

And they have known thee high peruse
The heavens, and deep the earth, till thou

Didst into the flushed circle cruise
Where reason quits the brow.

V
Thou animatest ancient tales,

To prove our world of linear seed:
Thy very virtue now assails,

A tempter to mislead.
VI

But thou hast answer I am I;
My passion hallows, bids command:

And she is gracious, she is nigh:
One motion of the hand!

VII
It will suffice; a whirly tune

These winds will pipe, and thou perform
The nodded part of pantaloon

In thy created storm.
VIII

Admires thee Nature with much pride;
She clasps thee for a gift of morn,

Till thou art set against the tide,
And then beware her scorn.

IX
Sad issue, should that strife befall

Between thy mortal ship and thee!
It writes the melancholy scrawl

Of wreckage over sea.
X

This lady of the luting tongue,
The flash in darkness, billow's grace,

For thee the worship; for the young
In muscle the embrace.

XI
Soar on thy manhood clear from those

Whose toothless Winter claws at May,
And take her as the vein of rose

Athwart an evening grey.
PERIANDER

I
How died Melissa none dares shape in words.

A woman who is wife despotic lords
Count faggot at the question, Shall she live!

Her son, because his brows were black of her,
Runs barking for his bread, a fugitive,

And Corinth frowns on them that feed the cur.
II

There is no Corinth save the whip and curb
Of Corinth, high Periander; the superb

In magnanimity, in rule severe.
Up on his marble fortress-tower he sits,

• liquor [´likə] n.酒类；(溶)液 (初中英语单词)
• thrust [θrʌst] v.&n.猛推；冲；刺；挤进 (初中英语单词)
• bloody [´blʌdi] a.(流)血的；血腥的 (初中英语单词)
• destruction [di´strʌkʃən] n.破坏，毁灭 (初中英语单词)
• drunken [´drʌŋkən] a.喝醉的；常醉的 (初中英语单词)
• fearful [´fiəfəl] a.可怕的；担心的 (初中英语单词)
• circle [´sə:kəl] n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词)
• virtue [´və:tʃu:] n.美德；贞操；长处 (初中英语单词)
• passion [´pæʃən] n.激情；激怒；恋爱 (初中英语单词)
• gracious [´greiʃəs] a.和蔼可亲的；任慈的 (初中英语单词)
• worship [´wə:ʃip] n.&v.崇拜；敬仰 (初中英语单词)
• muscle [´mʌsəl] n.肌肉；体力；力量 (初中英语单词)
• marble [´mɑ:bəl] n.大理石 a.大理石的 (初中英语单词)
• vengeance [´vendʒəns] n.报复，复仇 (高中英语单词)
• cupboard [´kʌbəd] n.碗柜，食橱 (高中英语单词)
• arctic [´ɑ:ktik] a.北极的 (高中英语单词)
• shadowy [´ʃædəui] a.有阴影的；模糊的 (高中英语单词)
• onward [´ɔnwəd] ad.&a.向前(的) (高中英语单词)
• cleanse [klenz] vt.使清洁；净化 (高中英语单词)
• brotherhood [´brʌðəhud] n.兄弟情谊；兄弟关系 (高中英语单词)
• strife [straif] n.竞争；吵架；冲突 (高中英语单词)
• kindle [´kindl] v.点燃；(使)激动 (高中英语单词)
• radiant [´reidiənt] a.发光的 n.光源(体) (高中英语单词)
• motion [´məuʃən] n.手势 vt.打手势 (高中英语单词)
• suffice [sə´fais] vt.使满足 vi.足够 (高中英语单词)
• beware [bi´weə] v.(用于祈使句)谨防 (高中英语单词)
• mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
• melancholy [´melənkəli] n.忧郁 a.忧郁的 (高中英语单词)
• manhood [´mænhud] n.人格；男子气概 (高中英语单词)
• nought [nɔ:t] n.=naught (英语四级单词)
• humbly [´hʌmbli] ad.恭顺地，谦卑地 (英语四级单词)
• nightfall [´nait,fɔ:l] n.黄昏；傍晚 (英语六级单词)
• sluggish [´slʌgiʃ] a.呆滞的；偷懒的 (英语六级单词)